29 March 2014

Do you want to
have gorgeous home made oven tomatoes in style of sun-dried tomatoes?
If you are willing to try, these oven tomatoes make a really nice
side to many dishes. They are slow cooked in the oven with a lovely
herb seasoning. This recipe is from the vegetarian cookbook Gemüse
satt! by Alice Hart (p. 242).

500g medium vine
tomatoes

2 sprigs of fresh
rosemary

2 garlic cloves

1tsp sea salt

½tsp black pepper

1tsp sugar

2tbsp olive oil

Cut the tomatoes
in half and place on a baking tray lined with a baking parchment.

Sprinkle the
seasoning and olive oil on them. I added the finely chopped garlic
cloves on the tomatoes after one hour baking.

Bake at 110C for
about 3-4 hours (depending on the size of the tomatoes) and enjoy the
beautiful aroma coming from the oven.

These can be
enjoyed in a whole variety of ways: in salads, in baking breads, with
pastas...

28 March 2014

I'm visiting my family in Finland and we are celebrating my grandfather's amazing 90th birthday tomorrow. I made these mini vegetable quiches for the coffee table as a savoury treat for the guests. As we had so much to prepare, I cut a few corners and used ready made pastry, which meant that these quiches are hardly any work, have a look!

Chop the vegetables, bell pepper and onion finely and cook them in little oil until all excess fluis has cooked off and the vegetables are soft. Let it cool, and then mix the grated emmental to it and season with salt, pepper and parsley.

Roll the pastry out thinly and cut small squares of it and press each of them into muffin cases. Pre-bake the crusts at 200C for about 5-10 minutes until the pastry becomes little bit puffy.

Beat the eggs and mix them with the cream, you can add the seasoning also to this mix, if you prefer.

Put the vegetable and cheese mix into the pastry cases and pour some egg and cream mix into each one, about 2 teaspoons.

27 March 2014

I have made a
vegetarian chilli again. The butter beans and black beans were the main
ingredients in this one, but I also added some sweetcorn to it. Use more chillies
than mentioned in this recipe, if you prefer really spicy food, as I
like my chilli a bit milder. I normally make a bigger batch so that I
can have some left as next day's lunch. I think that this kind of chilli is also a nice dish to offer to any vegetarian dinner guests you might have.

So this is how it goes.

7 small shallots

5 garlic cloves

1 green chilli

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp ground
coriander

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp paprika

250 g tomatoes

400 g butter beans
(1 can)

400 g black beans
(1 can)

400 g sweetcorn (1
can)

140 g double
concentrated tomato purée

150 g Red
Leicester cheese

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cocoa powder

2 tsp vegetable
stock powder

1 lime's juice

Chop the shallots,
garlic cloves, green chilli and tomatoes small.

Cook the shallots,
garlic and chilli in olive oil until soft. Then add the following
seasoning: ground coriander, ground cumin and paprika, and stir for a
minute or so. Then add the chopped tomatoes, butter beans, black
beans, sweetcorn and tomato purée, and simmer under lid for at least
30 minutes, but the cooking time can be even longer.

Season later with
salt, cocoa powder, vegetable stock powder and lime juice. Add more
of any of the spices to taste. Once you are happy that the flavours
have blended nicely and everything is cooked, stir in the cheese.

25 March 2014

This recipe is
from Yotam Ottolenghi's vegetarian cookbook Plenty (p.
110-111),of which I'm
a great fan. The original recipe Aubergine with
buttermilk sauce can also be
found here. The taste of this dish is out of this world, and when I first made it
I thought, I'd never eat anything else ever again. In the meanwhile
my views might be less extreme, but still, this is one beautiful dish
and I can't wait to make it again!

I didn't change much from the original, but here's my version anyway.

Ingredients

2 large aubergines

80ml olive oil

2tsp lemon thyme leaves

1 pomegranate

Sea salt

Black pepper

Ingredients for
the sauce

140ml buttermilk

100g Greek yoghurt

1tbsp olive oil

1 garlic clove

Salt

Method

It's easy to start with the sauce as you only need to chop the garlic
and then just stir all the ingredients together. The sauce can be
placed to the fridge while you are preparing the aubergines.

Cut the aubergines in half and make diamond shape cuts to the inside
of them, be careful not to pierce the skin. Place them in a baking
dish and brush with the olive oil until all of the oil has absorbed
into the aubergines. Sprinkle some lemon thyme, salt and pepper on
the top and roast at 200C for about 35-40 minutes. Let them cool
after the roasting.

Spread the sauce on the aubergines and sprinkle the pomegranate seeds
on for serving. You can also sprinkle some additional olive oil and
lemon thyme on the top. Then enjoy this beautiful dish!

24 March 2014

Occasionally I
want to travel in time back to the 1980s, and reminiscent wonderful
working class grub from Finland. These fried potatoes qualify as
such, in this post I have only changed them a little bit by adding
leeks, and serving them with mushrooms (that's not quite
traditional). My second excursion into the world of fried potatoes
happened in Germany, and I do appreciate this humble dish very much.
Normally you would only make this dish from leftover cooked potatoes,
but sometimes it's worth making them from scratch. Today I'm flying
to Finland for a short holiday, so this is a great lunch before the
flight.

I have divided the
ingredients into three sections as I started preparing these
components in three different pans.

Fried potatoes:

650g potatoes

4 shallots

1tbsp vegetable
oil

½tsp paprika

1tsp salt

½tsp black pepper

1tsp thyme

Leek supplement:

3 leeks

2 shallots

3 garlic cloves

24g butter

50ml dry cider

Mushroom side:

200g baby chestnut
mushrooms

1 garlic clove

1tbsp olive oil

½tsp vegetable
stock powder + 50ml water

1tsp parsley

A splash of white
wine

Boil the potatoes
for about 20 minutes with the peels on so that they become almost
cooked. After the boiling peel them, if the peel is too thick for
your taste. I wouldn't peel for example new potatoes, and even others
can be left with the peels on. Quarter or slice them generously.

Heat vegetable oil
in a frying pan and start frying the potatoes in the pan at medium
heat. They are supposed to get crispy and brown on the surface, but
take care that the temperature isn't too hot and stir them
occasionally. The potatoes also need to fully cook, so no need for
haste. When the potatoes are nearly cooked, season them with paprika,
salt, black pepper and thyme.

Slice the leeks,
shallots and garlic (divide the garlic for the leeks and the
mushrooms that are to be cooked separately). Heat the butter in
another pan and sauté the shallots and garlic in there; later add
the leeks and cider and let simmer under the lid.

Keep the mushrooms
as whole and cook them in olive oil with one chopped garlic clove.
Add the white wine and vegetable stock, and let it also simmer slowly
under the lid by occasionally stirring. Season with parsley and maybe
with additional salt, if the stock isn't salty enough.

Once you're happy
with all the components, combine the potatoes and leeks and serve
them with the mushrooms on the side.

23 March 2014

I really love
vegetarian curry dishes, and today's recipe is a favourite of mine, a
basic Aloo Gobi, an Indian style cauliflower and potato curry. I'm not claiming to be an expert in Indian cuisine, or even close,
but I like to try. I happen to live close to a good vegetarian Indian
restaurant, so out of convenience I rarely need to cook my own
curries. This one is fairly easy, so I would encourage you to try to
make it too!

Ingredients

400 g potatoes

1 cauliflower

200 g carrots

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

Fresh ginger
(similar amount to the garlic)

1-2 small dried
chillies

250 g tomatoes

70 g cashew nuts

1 tbsp vegetable
oil

1 tsp ground
turmeric

2 tbsp fresh
coriander leaves

Naan bread

Either use 1½
tbsp of a ready made Garam Masala spice mix, or make your own
with the following instructions:

Garam Masala spice mix

4 tbsps coriander
seeds

2½ tbsp cumin
seeds

1 tbsp black
peppercorns

3-4 large black
cardamom pods

¾ tsp cloves

¾ tsp cinnamon

¾ tsp crushed bay
leaves

1½ tsp dry ginger
(don't toast)

I especially
enjoyed making the Garam Masala spice mix.

Toast all the
ingredients apart from the ginger powder for a few minutes in a dry,
heavy frying pan on a medium heat, until they get slightly darker. Be
careful that the pan isn't too hot. After the toasting remove the
pods of cardamom, keeping the seeds, and grind the spices together.
Add the ginger powder to the mix.

This makes about
three times the amount of the spice mix needed for this dish, but I
froze the left overs to be used again soon.

Method

Finely chop the
tomatoes, shallots, garlic, fresh ginger and chilli. Cube the
potatoes, slice the carrots and cut off the cauliflower florets.
Coarsely crush the cashew nuts, keeping lots of large bits to add
texture.

Cook the shallots,
garlic, fresh ginger and chilli with a little vegetable oil in a
large pan until soft. Add the Garam Masala to the pan and then
the tomatoes.

After a little
while add the cashew nuts, potatoes, cauliflower and carrots and
simmer under the lid until the vegetables are fully cooked and the
spices have developed their flavours nicely. Add small amounts of
water to the pan when needed. That will make the potatoes cook
quicker. However try not to rush this dish as it's nicer after a
longer simmering.

Season the curry
with turmeric and fresh coriander leaves. Serve with warm naan bread,
or you could also pair it with some rice.

22 March 2014

The VegHog visited
the Winchester Real Ale & Cider Festival yesterday at the
historic Winchester Guildhall. The guildhall was packed with beer and cider casks, also foreign
bottled beers were available, a food court with even some veggie
options, and live music. The atmosphere was cheery and uplifting.

I wanted to share
some tasting notes with you of the ales and ciders I tried.

20 March 2014

Focaccia is a fine
style of bread, quick to make and only your imagination limits what
to top it with. I made a chanterelle mushroom variation, which is
slightly different to the typical ones, but it worked very well. I
had to use dried chanterelles, but do use fresh ones whenever you can
get any, as they are much better. Their distinctive flavour is
present in the dried mushrooms, but it's just not the same.

10g dried
chanterelles

500ml wheat flour

1tbsp dry yeast

200ml water

1tsp sugar

1tsp salt

2tbsp olive oil

20g grated
emmental

Rosemary

Thyme

Sea salt

Mix the flour and
yeast, then add the lukewarm water, sugar, salt and olive oil. Knead
the dough and let it rise for about 30 minutes under a tea towel.

Soak the mushrooms for about 10 minutes, drain and cook briefly in a
pan until the excess liquid has evaporated.

Hand-stretch the
dough on a baking tin lined with baking parchment.

Sprinkle the
grated cheese, rosemary, thyme, sea salt and chanterelles on the top.

17 March 2014

It's Mojito Monday! What do you mean
there's no such thing as a Mojito Monday? Well, then we'll just have
one now anyway.

Mojito is a much loved refreshing
cocktail by many, one of its big fans was the American author Ernest Hemingway, and The VegHog also belongs to the club.

A Mojito normally contains five
ingredients: rum, mint, lime, fizzy water and sugar. These are the
ones that I also used without measuring, just throw them all into a
jug and enjoy! Just be a little careful with the rum, or make it
alcohol free if you prefer.

16 March 2014

What an earth is a
leek potatotto?? Well, it is nothing but a leek and potato stew made
in style of a risotto, the potato cubes substituting the rice. I just
wanted to be a little bit whimsical with the naming of the dish,
hopefully I haven't repelled any readers because of it. This is a
lovely basic dish that renews the traditional and functional leek and
potato pairing, and it's easy to make as well. From my description
you will notice that the method is very much the same as making a
risotto.

Only quite basic
ingredients are needed, and this is how it goes:

3 shallots

3 garlic cloves

2 leeks

4 spring onions

1tbsp olive oil

750g new potatoes

25g butter

1dl dry cider

1l vegetable stock

Fresh parsley

1½tsp salt

1tsp black pepper

½tsp paprika

125g smoky cheddar

Chop the shallots,
garlic cloves, leeks and spring onions finely. Start cooking them at
medium heat in olive oil. Prepare one litre of warm vegetable stock,
some of the parsley can already be added to the stock.

Dice the new
potatoes into very small cubes (about 6-8mm per side), peel them
only, if the skin is thick. Add the butter to the pan once the other
components are cooked soft. Once the butter has melted, add the
potato cubes. Keep cooking for a further five minutes and then add
the cider. Let it evaporate and add a few ladles of the warm
vegetable stock. Keep simmering slowly under the lid and make
vegetable stock additions whenever the contents threaten to get too
dry, also stir often.

Cook until the
potatoes are fully cooked and the flavour has developed nicely.
Season with some more fresh parsley, salt, black pepper and paprika,
also add the smoky cheddar towards the end.

14 March 2014

Finally the
weekend is here, and more time can be spent in the kitchen! Why not
make a falafel feast for your loved ones like I made recently. Some
years ago I'd had enough of falafel. Quite often they were the only,
or the best, vegetarian alternative available, and so I thought that
I had already eaten more than my share. However now I started
thinking that I should give them another chance, and decided to make
my own. It turned out that I still like them very much and will
definitely have them more often again.

As an inspiration
and guideline I read quite a few falafel recipes, but mainly based my
own version on the Guardian article How to cook the perfect falafel and a recipe in the wonderful cookbook Veggiestan by
Sally Butcher. The making of the falafel is surprisingly simple, and you can combine
them with pretty much anything.

So this is how I
made mine, and the recipe makes about 15 falafel.

2 cups dried
chickpeas

195g broad beans
(1 can)

5 garlic cloves

4 spring onions

15g fresh parsley

15g fresh
coriander

1tsp salt

1tsp ground cumin

1tsp ground
coriander

1tsp baking powder

Vegetable oil for
frying

Soak the chickpeas
overnight. Many recipes suggested that the chickpeas don't need to be
pre-boiled, but I boiled them for 20 minutes anyway. The main reason
being that I don't have a good food processor, just my old hand
mixer. You can decide which version you prefer.

Chop the garlic
and the spring onions and remove any large stalks of the herbs. Then
just purée all the ingredients together into a paste that should be
easy to shape with your hands.

Heat vegetable oil
in a frying pan (or you can deep fry these) and fry the falafel on
both sides until crispy.

This is how simple
it is!

Serve the
falafel with:homemade hummus,
tahini, salad with mixed leaves, heirloom tomatoes and shallot rings,
char-grilled peppers with harissa coating (chopped peppers first
char-grilled on both sides, then brushed with harissa and baked in
the oven for 20 minutes), char-grilled halloumi and pitta bread.

11 March 2014

Here is just a
quick salad idea, so without much ado: I baked tofu in the oven and
marinated it with harissa, served it warm with some nice fresh salad
ingredients, and then this creation was ready to be shared. I really
like the complimenting flavours of harissa and pomegranate together,
and fruit is always a good idea on a salad.

Ingredients:

400g tofu

4 spring onions

100g pea shoots
and baby leaf salad

1 pomegranate

Vegetable oil

Marinade:

4tsp harissa (smoky, less hot variety)

2tsp honey

2tsp olive oil

Dice the tofu into
medium sized cubes (about 1,5cm sides; they will shrink a bit in the
oven) and brush them with little vegetable oil. Roast in the oven at
175C for about one hour until the cubes start to get a crispy
surface, turn them roughly every 15 minutes.

Make the marinade
by mixing harissa, honey and olive oil together, and brush the tofu
cubes all over with it. Roast them for further 20 minutes at 150C.

In the meanwhile
prepare the other ingredients: chop the spring onions, wash the salad
and remove the pomegranate seeds and place them on a plate.

When the tofu is
done, sprinkle it warm on the salad and serve. You can also try
substituting the tofu with halloumi to get some variation. Enjoy!

9 March 2014

This recipe is
quite good for a weekday meal. It's not too much work and the result
is a nice hearty meal that has the comfort food element for me. I
like making this sort of dishes after a long day at work.

Chop the shallots
and garlic and cook them in olive oil until soft. Add the spinach and
then the pesto (I used my convenient frozen pesto cubes) and cook
until the spinach has wilted. Season with salt and nutmeg.

Boil the gnocchi
in water until they float on the surface and mix them with the
spinach.

Place it all in an
oven dish, cover with mozzarella and bake at 180C for about 20
minutes until the cheese is golden brown. And it's all done!

8 March 2014

Today is the first
really warm day of the year here in Southern England, bright sunshine
at +15C! It's incredible what a boost such a weather can give you.
Here are some photos taken in the park next to my house when I
enjoyed the beautiful weather outside. The daffodils and crocuses are
blooming beautifully and the air has the very fragrance of spring.

Inspired by the
sunshine I also washed the glass panels of the balcony and cleaned
the pots to prepare it for a new urban growing season. I have some
plants already propagating in small pots indoors, and I can't wait to
move them outside. I have sown some seeds from the Psychedelic Salad Kit and can hopefully expect some funky looking vegetables later this
year.

Who is The VegHog?

A vegetarian hobby cook and urban gardener born in Finland, currently living in Denmark. I try to develop my cooking skills by making a wide variety of veggie dishes, some of them traditional and some new creations. My favourites include veggie burgers, squashes, organic and local produce, cider, spelt, rye, pizzas, pasta dishes, risottos and sea-buckthorn.
Follow theveghog on Instagram and @TheVegHog on Twitter!